simap

One benefit of this approach is that Wifi can drop or be unreliable without impacting animations.

This also lets them react to inputs e.g. using some of the IO or ADC, or using the sensor expansion board for audio, light, or movement (accelerometer). Each pattern is typically 5-15K (this includes compressed source, compiled, and preview animation), and there's plenty of flash to store hundreds of different patterns.

Pixelblaze is that plus a web interface, compiler, IDE, and pattern library all over WiFi. You can reprogram your work remotely without cables, and all real-time, or even on a phone. I found that quickly iterating I could get a better intuitive sense of the changes I was making and get the look I was going for with less hassle.

For apa102/sk9822 LEDs, the 32-bit math engine in Pixelblaze along with the HDR driver (5 + 8 bits) lets you get better color control at lower brightness levels and smoother transitions than what's currently in FastLED. I have a number of desk and/or nightlight projects that look just as good at 2% brightness, where with 8-bit per channel color you start to get extreme posterization and color mixes start failing.

Another slight advantage is that Pixelblaze uses a pipelined driver where pixel data doesn't usually need to be buffered before being send out to the LEDs. WS2812 are particularly sensitive, so there is a buffered mode for them, but for other chipsets Pixelblaze renders the pixel data just in time and doesn't require a framebuffer.